Live Review: James Blake & Jonti

South African expat Jonti warms the crowd up tonight, with the room already quite full as he starts. He plays a varied mix of songs; some are practically hip hop with their thumping beats, others are more focussed on softer synths. To further change things up, he picks up a guitar that appears to have a body made out of an oil tin for a song or two, adding another layer to the mix. After an excellent half hour, he steps out from behind his desk of synths to play a short song accompanied by a ukulele (yet again with bizarre tin body) to finish his set.

“Sorry if I look like I'm not into it, I'm just falling asleep,” admits James Blake, only a few songs in. He does indeed look barely there frequently throughout the night, but thankfully he manages to power through jetlag and put on a fantastic show.

Blake plays a selection of songs from his EPs, his 2011 debut album and the upcoming Overgrown. One of the new songs goes wrong, although no one the crowd seems to know what the issue is. “Y'know what – fuck it, I'm sorry,” Blake says, visibly annoyed and promising to get the song right when he next tours here. They start the song again and get through it without any issue this time. Retrograde, the first taste of the new album, is played in the encore to finish the show and receives one of the best responses of the night.

The crowd provides the only real issue. People repeatedly cheer while Blake loops his voice for a few songs (most noticeably on I Never Learnt To Share), resulting in the cheers looping too and distracting from the rest of the songs. The cheers return again during the quiet parts of Blake's solo rendition of Joni Mitchell's A Case Of You, which closes the main set.

Minor crowd grumbles aside, the show is a fantastic display of Blake and his band's excellent musicianship and quality songwriting.